Braintree bash to mark the 60th anniversary of the Fender Stratocaster

Saturday

Jun 21, 2014 at 11:00 AM

Fender, which is based in Scottsdale, Ariz., is marking the anniversary with a series of events around the country, including a takeover of Guitar Center in Braintree on Tuesday.

By Chad BerndtsonFor The Patriot Ledger

You don’t have to be a guitar nut to recognize the sound of a Fender Stratocaster, the weapon of choice for guitar gods from Jimi Hendrix and Pink Floyd’s David Gilmour to Jeff Beck, Ritchie Blackmore, Buddy Guy, John Mayer and Quincy-bred surf rock legend Dick Dale. Another local ace, Aerosmith’s Joe Perry, once described the sound of a Stratocaster to Rolling Stone as “dinosaurs eating cars.”

This year is the Stratocaster’s 60th anniversary, and as Justin Norvell, vice president of product development for Fender, notes, it’s never gone out of style.

“It’s versatile,” Norvell said. “The Stratocaster was designed from a unique place, and because it’s modular and nothing’s more than a few screws away, it’s easy to modify. It’s also comfortable to our eyes, but what we forget sometimes is that in the ’50s, it was so strange-looking people made comments about it being from outer space.”

Fender, which is based in Scottsdale, Ariz., is marking the anniversary with a series of events around the country, including a takeover of Guitar Center in Braintree on Tuesday.

Throughout the evening, Fender specialists will be giving away T-shirts, gifts and prizes, as well as talking up the history of the Stratocaster, playing songs closely associated with the guitar, and showing off some rare and one-off Stratocaster models.

“Maybe it’ll be one we’ve made out of a super-special piece of wood, or a lightweight ash wood or a flame maple, or thinline,” Norvell said. “We want to really show off the height of the craft. At our factory we’re still using a lot of the same equipment we used decades ago.”

Norvell’s job puts him in touch with guitar aficionados from around the world who want to know everything from the deep history to exacting technical details about certain Strats.

“Some people are very emotionally attached to it,” he said. “There’s a lot of folklore, too, because Leo Fender didn’t document every part of the process in the ’50s. People want to know certain differences about Stratocaster creation in various decades.”

Norvell plays, and as a Gen-X-er he grew up revering David Gilmour, though he cites current players such as John Mayer as great ambassadors for the instrument, too.

“Most of the people who are lead guitarists playing (Stratocasters) are what we think of as the guitar gods, and I’ve gotten to meet with and talk to so many of them,” he said. “I definitely wouldn’t want another job.”

FIVE FAVORITES ON THE STRATOCASTER

With so many guitarists known for playing the Fender Stratocaster – from Jeff Beck and David Gilmour to Ritchie Blackmore, Mark Knopfler, Ry Cooder, Eric Clapton and Buddy Guy – it’s tough to pick favorites. But here’s a list of five personal favorites, four of whom left this world way too soon.

Buddy Holly: The first hero of the Strat – and you can see it in his hands in the statue erected in his honor in Lubbock, Texas. Holly played a maple-necked Stratocaster on “The Ed Sullivan Show” in 1957, and epitomizes the early use of the Strat as a country/western guitar that evolved into an essential instrument in rock ’n’ roll.

Jimi Hendrix: The man, the myth, the ax. No list of popular music’s greatest guitarist ignores Hendrix, and no discussion of Hendrix leaves out his use of the Strat to achieve those gnarly tones.

Eddie Hazel: A master of funk and psychedelic rock guitar thanks to his time with Parliament-Funkadelic, Hazel’s Strat playing could range from gooey and warm to noisy and terrifying.

Stevie Ray Vaughan: The signature Stevie Ray Vaughan Stratocaster debuted in 1992, with a design based on “Number One,” said to be the Texas blues legend’s favorite guitar to play and appearing on most albums he cut with Double Trouble.

Dick Dale: Quincy-bred master of the surf guitar created a truly unique sound, much admired and much imitated. Dale has been in the game long enough to have worked with Leo Fender himself, and the two became good friends.

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